State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Issues Statement on 2014 ACT Report

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today issued the following statement upon the release by ACT of its annual report, The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2014.

"It is heartening to see that today's ACT report shows California's graduating class of 2014 outperformed the nation in English, reading, math, and science," said Torlakson. "More and more of our students are becoming better prepared for college-level coursework as we help ensure they gain the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an ever-changing and challenging world."

According to ACT, a curriculum-based measure of college readiness:

Thirty-four percent of California's ACT-tested 2014 high school graduates met or surpassed all four of ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks (English, math, reading, and science) compared to 26 percent nationally.

The average ACT score in California was 22.3 compared to 21 nationally.

The number of California students taking the ACT has grown steadily over the past several years—from 15 percent of graduates in 2007 to 29 percent (113,732 students) of graduates in 2014.

For more information on ACT and California's statistics, please contact ACT's Richard Moody at 319-333-9094 or visit ACT's 2014 ACT National and State Scores | 2014 Condition of College & Career Readiness | ACT [Note: the preceding link is now redirected to an unrelated Web page. Please see the
ACT home page [http://www.act.org/content/act/en.html].
California's disaggregated data by school will not be available for several months. For more information on college and career readiness, visit the California Department of Education's Career Readiness Campaign Web page.